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Whether people like the respondent can influence local government, asked as how much influence they can have over local government decisions (1987) and as how likely they would be to get the local government to make a community improvement (2002); the wordings differ, so comparability is loose.
AI-matched An AI model grouped these questions and mapped their answers onto shared categories, and a second AI review checked and corrected the grouping and mapping. No person has checked it: compare the question wordings and the answer mapping below before reading the lines against each other.
Latest: 9% answered “High ability to influence” in GSS: Ability to improve community through local government, 2002.
Shares of people whose answer maps onto these categories (non-answers and answers outside the scale are left out), because surveys differ in whether they offer “don’t know.” Each point is one survey wave at the middle of its field period. Lines from different surveys are never spliced together.
| Line | Question | Match | How answers map |
|---|---|---|---|
| GSS: Ability to improve community through local government | Ability to improve community through local government Suppose you wanted the local government to bring about some improvement in your local community. How likely is it that you would be able to do something about it? Caveat: Asks likelihood of success on a personal improvement, not degree of influence | similar | Very likely → High ability to influence; Somewhat likely → Moderate or some ability; Not very likely → Low or no ability; Not at all likely → Low or no ability |
| GSS: Influence people like you have on local government | Influence people like you have on local government How much influence do you think people like you can have over local government decisions -- a lot, a moderate amount, a little, or none at all? Caveat: Reference question; 'a little' merged with 'none' to fit 3 categories | identical | A lot → High ability to influence; Moderate amount → Moderate or some ability; A little → Low or no ability; None → Low or no ability |